Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2601, Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2601, FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2006 AND 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 19, 2005)
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Mr. FOLEY. Let me thank the gentleman very, very much for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to commend the rule. I was somewhat disappointed, as expressed by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), on the lack of a couple of amendments that we were attempting to insert in the bill dealing with Haiti. Haiti is a tragedy. There is no other way to describe it. They are kind, wonderful, hardworking people who are desperate for a solution to their ever-growing controversy. No matter whose side you believe in, no matter what you thought of past presidents or future presidents, the one thing that is abundantly clear to most of us is that Haiti is drowning in despair. The people have been ravaged not only by political unrest and upheaval, natural disasters, hurricanes and other things and what I was trying to do in the amendment was to provide a new concept much like a Peace Corps, taking Haitian citizens who are now here in the United States who are learning a free economy, learning to be teachers, police officers, pharmacists, to create a structure in the State Department, in cooperation with NGOs, to use those talents and capabilities to help bring some stability to Haiti.
I know we have tried and the White House both past and present have injected significant amounts of resources to try to help the island. For whatever reason, one side pits the other, the lack of any clear-cut direction, and I believe to some degree the Haitian people lack trust in some of our motives and motivations, which is why I thought of this concept of bringing people who now had learned about the free market concepts of America to send them back to Haiti for a limited time so that they too could use that talent that they have learned here in the United States to help their brothers and sisters in Haiti try to build an economy, build an education system, build a health care dynamic, and try to create a pathway for their future.
We have seen billions, honestly, squandered in Haiti from one regime to the next. None seems to be better than the last. And at the same time, the people in Haiti are starved, some are imprisoned. An election is contemplated, and I do not know how in the world we will structure an election based on the current chaos that is evidenced in Haiti. However, many of us, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt), many people in the room, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek), the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings), I am just naming a couple people. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) I know has had a unique and particular interest in this area. We may come from different political parties, but I think our motives are pure at least on the point of view that it is about the people of Haiti, not about whoever is running the country.
So I commend the bill and of course will support the very important endeavors of our Committee on International Relations as they work across the globe to try to bring unity of purpose to a very complicated and convoluted and dangerous world. But for this Member from Florida, my heart really does truly go out to the Haitian people. I pray that in the days ahead we come up with some significant ways in order to look at the concerns some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have relative to our intervention or activities in Haiti and try to put aside some of our animus towards recognizing that unless we get our act together the people of Haiti will still be starving, they will still be dying of disease, they will still be cleaning up after hurricane debris, and they will still be wondering what is their future to be like.
So I want to thank all who have participated in the debate. I want to thank Members, both Republicans and Democrats, who have submitted amendments yesterday that were not included in the rule. But I can assure my colleagues that we will continue to endeavor to see that our points of view are brought forward either in this vehicle or future vehicles as we move down the road.
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